The Freedom Bulletin

Photo by Paul Weiskel

There has been something of a brouhaha, in the Boston area at least, about the above picture, showing a confrontation between a police officer and an Occupy Boston member who was protesting against the Massachusetts Tea Party Coalition‘s tax day rally. For a cop to grab someone by the neck seems extreme at first. But when you think about what the protesters were doing, it actually doesn’t seem too unreasonable.

There is a difference between voicing your views and preventing anyone who disagrees with you from voicing theirs. I am all for protesting – holding up signs, chanting, circulating petitions, holding sit-ins, etc. But I am not in favor of protests that are so disruptive that they effectively take away the freedom of speech of the people they are protesting. I admit that I did not attend this year’s Tea Party rally. And I admit that this is a fine distinction. But judging by photos, videos, and news reports, I think the anti-tea-party protesters were on the wrong side of it. They certainly were last year, when they pushed their way between the audience and the stage and held up signs and banners to deliberately block our view of the speakers that we had gathered to watch. Contrast this with a protest that I was a part of, against President Obama’s visit to Northeastern University to support Martha Coakley’s senate campaign in 2010. We lined the streets, held up signs, chanted, and marched around, but we did not, for example, burst into the hall where Obama was speaking, drown out his words, or hold up signs blocking his face.

This is not just about keeping order, it is about protecting the freedom of speech of minorities against a majority who would drown them out. And in Boston, conservatives are certainly a minority. It is heartening that the Boston Police acted to protect the rights of Tea Party activists to hold a rally in a political climate where their views are unpopular among the majority of people.

Last night, Dominique Strauss-Kahn braved hordes of angry protesters and gave a speech about the global economy to students at Cambridge University. According to the New York Post, he spoke about the European debt crisis and his tenure as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. But because no cameras or members of the press were allowed at the event, there are unfortunately few details about what Strauss-Kahn actually said.

According to the Guardian, one student asked what Strauss-Kahn thought of the protesters. He responded, “That’s their freedom. They can do what they want. I think they are wrong.”

And according to the Telegraph, another student asked him to explain why the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault suffered from “bruising…the day after you met her.” He replied, ”I’m not quite sure that’s the topic of this evening. New York dismissed the case…What more do you want?” (If he had chosen to, he could have pointed out that that particular piece of forensic evidence can be attributed to the fact that she reportedly had sex with an unknown individual the night before she met Strauss-Kahn.)

Aside from that question, all of the students’ interactions with DSK reportedly were respectful. He remained calm and collected throughout and even allowed the rude questioner to finish speaking when security tried to remove him. It sounds like Dominique showed a lot of bravery and class.

The same cannot be said of the protesters who tried as hard as they could to disrupt the speech. And unlike the actual substance of Strauss-Kahn’s talk, they got plenty of media coverage. It seems like there were somewhere between 100 and 200 protesters, led by the same people who circulated a petition calling for DSK to be uninvited. (The Cambridge Union Society, to their credit, refused to do this.) Failing that, they held signs, chanted, yelled into megaphones, scuffled with police, attempted to forcibly enter the hall by pushing or climbing metal barriers that police had put up, and tried to physically block DSK from leaving. Worst of all, they vandalized buildings with anti-DSK graffiti, including “Women deserve better” and ”DSK die,” which can be seen here.

First of all, I resent the fact that these protesters (and vandals) claim to speak for all women – what about women such as myself who think DSK is innocent, or who simply would like to hear him speak?

Second of all, yes, someone actually decided to spray paint the words, “DSK die,” on a building. I’m not sure how defacing beautiful, historic buildings and making death threats against an aging economist who is attempting to give an economic speech helps the cause of women’s rights. I’ve written before that I disagree with, and actually find anti-feminist, the message of these protests, which seems to be that sexual aggression is inherently something that men commit against women, and that male rape defendants should be presumed guilty. But “DSK die” is wrong on a different level entirely. It is violent, illegal, and simply appalling.

The good thing is that these acts of vandalism, violence, and intimidation should, hopefully, hurt the image of the anti-DSK movement. Five people reportedly were arrested, two for vandalism and three for clashing with police and disturbing the peace during the speech.

There was also at least one brave counter-protester who held a sign that read, “Let DSK speak! Just because he may be a sex offender doesn’t mean he’s not listening to.” I second that.

Update: As I read more news coverage, the anti-DSK demonstrations seem more and more violent, barbaric, and unreasonable. The name of the courageous pro-free-speech protester is Anton Bruder. According to Varsity, the angry mob snatched his poster out of hands and stomped on it. Videos show huge mobs of people, not just one or two, physically assaulting police and attempting to forcibly pull down the barricades that separated them from DSK…to do what exactly? Trample him to death? I have witnessed a good number of protests, either as a participant or an observer, including Tea Party rallies, anti-Obama demonstrations, and Occupy protests, and I have never seen anything this bad. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the fact that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is giving a speech makes these people so angry. There are plenty of things that make me angry, but an economic speech by a man who has lost almost everything and is trying to rebuild his career is certainly not one of them. There is nothing brave or honorable about what these mobs did last night, either in their cause (a warped version of feminism that is actually anti-feminist) or their methods (violence, death threats, vandalism, and intimidation). They should apologize to the Union Society, DSK, Bruder, and all the people who they assaulted and whose property they destroyed.

3/11 update: The Cambridge Union Society has posted a video of DSK’s entire speech and Q and A session. I’ll admit that I don’t know enough about economics to say whether or not I agree with everything he said. But it is great to hear his ideas, and I am impressed with his confidence, charisma, and professionalism, especially after the rude question.

Every day on the way to work, I pass not too far from the tent city created by the Occupy Boston protesters. It covers an entire block of the Greenway, a public park, and contains a food tent, logistics tent, legal tent, media tent, Gandhi statue, fire alarm, security volunteers, and of course countless signs and banners. I decided to pay it a visit on a couple of occasions, and it’s an interesting place – except for one person who yelled at me for taking a picture (maybe a bit of hypocrisy given Occupy’s enthusiasm about the First Amendment?).

The residents of the tent city were certainly diverse. There were lots of teenagers and young adults, many middle-aged and older people, and even a little kid or two. Some people fit the grubby hippie stereotype, while others looked like the average person you’d see on the street. On one occasion, a man addressed a large crowd of protesters. On another occasion, people marched with signs and flags down a nearby street. And on another, a large group of people sang while others played drums. Protesters held signs by busy Atlantic Ave during the evening commute, a man on a bicycle distributed apples, staffers of the food tent doled out supper, people took part in religious ceremonies, and at all times various people just milled around, sitting alone or conversing with each other.

It’s hard for me to decide what I think of the Occupy movement, because they don’t have any official leader or official platform. They are generally considered a left-wing movement due to some of their widely held beliefs, such as higher taxes on the rich, forgiving student loans and other debt, health care for all, and a stronger social safety net. But the Occupiers do have some things in common with the Tea Party movement. Neither is fond of the Federal Reserve, and in general both are all about the rights of everyday people and against the status quo and centralized authority, whether that be big banks or big government. I even saw a Gadsden flag, widely regarded as a Tea Party emblem, in the Occupy Boston tent city.

WikiLeaks noted these similarities, tweeting, ”Grass roots Tea Party, Republicans, Libertarians must continue to join #occupy. Keep it central: 99% vs corrupt institutions, patronage” and then added, “#occupy Don’t fall into the trap of more taxes. The security state will just spend it on their pals. We need accountability, local taxation.”

Regardless of what you think of Occupy, it’s never right to argue against a political movement by insulting its members with offensive stereotypes. But that’s what far too many commentators, many of whom I usually agree with, are doing. Howie Carr called them “spoiled rich kids,” and “trust-fund hippies,” and ridiculed their names, ages, hometowns, and occupations. Michael Graham dubbed them “clueless college anti-capitalists” and accused them of “stealing all the soap in the South Station bathrooms.” How exactly do they know these things?

Even if I don’t agree with them 100%, I’m glad that the Occupy movement is around and welcome their contributions to political discourse across the world.

I managed to create the above video of Friday’s Boston Tea Party. Thanks to the counter-protesters, I wasn’t able to get all of the speeches, and the ones I did get aren’t in as good quality as I had hoped for. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Today I attended the 3rd annual Boston Tea Party at Boston Common. The awesome (as usual) event featured music, speeches, and booths to celebrate fiscal conservatism and individual liberty. The speakers included radio hosts Michael Graham, Todd Feinberg, and Jeff Katz, as well as guest of honor Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota. Hundreds of pro-liberty people of all sorts were in attendance.

Unfortunately, however, about a dozen counter-protesters showed up, too. And they decided to push to the front of the crowd, yell into megaphones that we were sexist, racist, and anti-gay and should get out of Boston, and worst of all, hold up a huge banner and signs so that almost nobody could see, photograph, or record any of the speeches. I have no problem with people demonstrating and gaining attention for their views, no matter what those views may be. But to physically impede people from seeing, enjoying, or participating meaningfully in an event is not acceptable. How dare they tell us to get out when they are the ones blocking our view of our own rally?

As a result of their rude, inconsiderate, unethical, mean-spirited, and heartless actions, I (along with countless other people) was unable to take very good pictures or videos of this once-a-year event that I had been looking forward to for months. Although I was unable to take as many as I would have liked, below are some pictures that I managed to take:

Today (Sunday, January 17) I attended a demonstration by Scott Brown supporters at President Obama’s speech endorsing Martha Coakley at Northeastern University in Boston. It was totally awesome. There were about 100 (or maybe more) Scott Brown supporters holding sings and chanting “Make Obama frown, vote Scott Brown” and “Don’t do coke” (as in Coakley ). We definitely outnumbered the Coakley supporters. We spread out all along Huntington Ave and then marched across the street to the massive line of (mostly pro-Coakley) people waiting to get in to see Obama’s speech. At least 3 cars covered in Scott Brown signs passed by, and we got lots of honks and thumbs up from passing cars, including a fire truck. We even got free hot chocolate from people who I think worked in the Northeastern cafeteria. Many of the Boston cops who were keeping order at the protest indicated that they supported Scott, too!

When we crossed to the side where the Coakley supporters were, one guy kept going on and on about how Scott Brown supporters are defending sex offenders and want them walking around on the streets. Apparently he was referring to the case of Gerald Amirault, who was falsely convicted of child molestation but was kept in prison due to Coakley’s lobbying, even though there was no evidence supporting the charges. A couple of Scott supporters and I pointed out that actually, opposing the jailing of innocent people is not the same as wanting sex offenders out on the streets, and that putting innocent people behind bars is not so great. He replied, “She was a prosecutor; that’s her job.” Oh, yeah. Putting innocent people in jail, that’s a prosecutor’s job, all right!

Here are some photos I took at the rally. Enjoy!

I also made some videos of the Scott Brown rally, which I have uploaded to Youtube and which you can see here.

For some mainstream media coverage of Obama’s appearance and the protests, check out:

• Boston Globe
• Boston Herald

Today I had a few hours between classes, so I headed down to Boston Common for the Tax Day Tea Party! All I can say is that I am so glad I decided to go. There was a crowd of what seemed like about 1000 people gathered near the State House, holding awesome signs, waving flags, sitting on the steps, milling around, handing out literature, speaking to reporters, and standing up for liberty! I could hardly hear the speakers (who included Michael Graham and Carla Howell) but just being in the presence of so many liberty-loving Americans was one of the coolest things ever. In attendance were people of all races and all ages, from little kids to teenagers to adults to old people. Some were wearing period costumes, some had anti-Obama and anti-tax t-shirts, and most just looked like regular people. There were not only people active in the liberty movement, but also people who stopped by during their lunch break or who just saw the protest and decided to join in. The Tea Party made me proud to be from Boston and gave me hope for America.

The media is giving Boston’s Tea Party, as well as the other ones all around the country, a lot of attention! I saw reporters and camera crews from Fox News and CNN, among many others. Check out these articles: CNN, Fox News, and CBS. I took some pictures myself, which will be posted tonight when I have time to make thumbnails, some of which you are looking at now. Click here to see the rest!

Hooray for liberty!!!